Connecting AZ-1 Podcast

Connecting AZ-1 is a podcast documenting the people, programs, and partnerships building a more connected Arizona. Each episode, the AZ-1 student storytelling team sits down with the voices shaping digital inclusion, community trust, and real human impact, the stories behind the data, and the people the reports don't capture. New episodes dropping regularly. Subscribe so you never miss one.

In this episode, we sit down with Darrina from New Freedom, a re-entry program built on something most systems skip: peer support. Darrina works directly with justice-impacted individuals, and she's here to talk about what trust actually looks like when it's built from shared experience, what success looks like that never makes it into a report, and where systems, despite good intentions, sometimes get in their own way.